ARTIST
ART CRITICAL ESSAY
Lighthouse
By Richard Vine
A kind of magic seems to animate Korean-born, US-based AneseEunCho’s “Lighthouse”sculptures (2025-ongoing), which at once confirm and subvert every association we customarily have with their memorable title.
A lighthouse is ordinarily a beacon of warning, alerting ships to treacherous reefs and shoals, and guiding sailors to safe harbor. Today the towers are maintained automatically, but in the past they were typically tended by a lone soul with a penchant for solitude.
Cho’s “Lighthouse”works, whether standing singly or in groups, have something of the same psychological effect, reminding viewers of the turmoil and treacheries of life, but also evoking a refuge. Constructed according to base-3 numerology, they are composed of a metal framework with LED light tubes outlining a simple domestic abode—a quintessential house that quickly becomes a psychic home for viewers, regardless of their nationality, culture, or personal history.
Four walls, a peaked roof, one door, and one window—these are the minimalist components of a house. Yet here they are imaginary, conjured by the mind in response to geometric outlines whose spatial relationships shift as the viewer moves.Cho’s perceptual construct is, therefore, more powerful,more eidetic and lasting, than any actual house.
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Richard Vine is the former managing editor of Art in America and the author of such books as Odd Nerdrum (2001) and New China, New Art (2008) as well as the novel SoHo Sins (2016).
Publications
The Call of the Desert: Chronicle of the Marfa Invitational Open
Sculptor Ray Smith, a Texan legend discovered in the 1980s by Larry Gagosian, presented three monumental works that glowed in the evening light, drawing people in like magnets under the red desert sunset. A few steps away, Lighthouse, a luminous sculpture by Korean-Texan artist Anese, stood like a serene guardian. It was not made of bricks, but of the longing for home, of the idea of refuge, softly illuminating in the desert wind.
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By Sonia BB
MORE ARTICLES
ABOUT ME
I believe we’re all born artists. Before we learn language or judgment, we instinctively create. As a child, I drew constantly—on paper, in the dirt, with rocks and sticks, anything I could find. I didn’t do it for praise; I did it because something inside me needed to. That instinct became my way of surviving, processing, and dreaming.
I believe we’re all born artists. Before we learn language or judgment, we instinctively create. As a child, I drew constantly—on paper, in the dirt, with rocks and sticks, anything I could find. I didn’t do it for praise; I did it because something inside me needed to. That instinct became my way of surviving, processing, and dreaming.
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Twelve Lighthouse
Not everyone feels safe in the same kind of space.
Some found comfort under a table, inside a closet. Others needed more room, more light.
This installation of twelve glowing lighthouses, each a different size, each shining at its own strength, invites you to find the one that feels right for you.
A lighthouse doesn’t have to come from the past.
It can be something you step into now.
Let the light hold you.
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